Rahel’s Ethiopian Food

It’s common to hear a certain class of foodniks proclaim
the local food-cart craze is over. Which is true—if by “craze” you mean a
“brief period when trained chefs thought it would be cute to make
opulent sandwiches in a cart until the right investment scout winked as
she swiped her finger across the Square-equipped iPad.”

Now that those people
are ensconced back in their LEED-certified towers, the cart scene is
again a platform for hard-working outsiders trying to claw their way
into the restaurant industry by serving busy people and immigrant
communities.

At least that’s the
dynamic driving traffic at Southeast 102nd Avenue and Stark Street.
Rahel’s, one of the newest carts at that pod, is the second Ethiopian
cart in town, meaning Portland has twice as many Ethiopian carts as
there are Ethiopian restaurants in the states of Alabama, Arkansas and
Mississippi—combined. The cart even sells $5 bags of green coffee beans
to be pan-roasted before being ground and brewed in the traditional
Ethiopian way. “The Americans don’t buy those,” says the cart’s owner.
“Just the Ethiopian people.”

Rahel’s sells six
main dishes, including doro watt (slow-cooked chicken in spicy berbere
sauce, $8), siga watt (stewed beef, $7), tibs (pan-fried beef cubes, $7)
and miser kay watt (red and yellow lentils simmered with berbere
spices, $6). All are served on a blanket of thicker-than-average injera
with a side of crisp, pleasantly bitter collard greens. The greens, beef
and lentils are all allowed to keep a little of their crispness,
avoiding the mushiness that is a common problem with Ethiopian food,
especially when it’s served from a row of slow cookers.

Rahel’s may or may
not eventually grow into bricks. But, as it’s 50 blocks east of the
nearest Ethiopian competitor, I’m happy to see it, trends be damned.